Mahmoud Muna

Mahmoud Muna will share the story of the Educational Bookshop in occupied Jerusalem, founded by his father—a schoolteacher—as an afternoon initiative, using literature and culture as a means of strengthening Palestinian identity. Bookshops like this one play an essential role in resisting occupation, apartheid, and (settler) colonialism. They serve as guardians of truth and the cultural heritage of oppressed peoples. One such act of preservation is the book Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture, which Muna co-edited with Matthew Teller. Through the voices of people from Gaza, the book seeks to safeguard their heritage while revealing the richness of the region’s cultural landscape and the depth of its history.

In February 2025, Israeli police raided the Educational Bookshop twice, arrested Muna and detained him for several days. They confiscated books bearing the word "Palestine" in the title or displaying Palestinian symbols on their covers—including a children’s coloring book, as well as works by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé.

The conversation with the author will be led by Urška Breznik.

Mahmoud Muna is a writer and publisher, widely known as “the bookseller of Jerusalem.” He manages the iconic Educational Bookshop and the bookstore at the American Colony Hotel—both hubs of Jerusalem’s literary scene. He studied Media and Communications at the University of Sussex and King’s College London. Muna is active in numerous cultural initiatives across Palestine and regularly writes about culture and politics, with contributions to the London Review of Books, Jerusalem Quarterly, and others. Most recently, he published the first Arabic edition of the literary magazine Granta, and co-edited Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture with Matthew Teller.

On the anniversary of the Nakba, Vodnikova Domačija, the Movement for the Rights of Palestinians, and the Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže Institute are, for the second year in a row, organizing a series of events titled Free Palestine together with their partners, highlighting the voice of Palestine. The events will take place between May 12 and 17, 2025, in Ljubljana, Maribor, and Koper. The event in Maribor is organized by the Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže Institute as part of the program Reading the Word = Reading the World. The event is co-organized by the Maribor Puppet Theatre and the Minoriti Cultural Quarter.